'  ri*A< 


fw-lXi  . 


NOTES 

on  the 

OLD  CROSS 

at 

CANNA 


rw?sm 


I  f  jU  '*  ■;•'  '  I."  T' rfL 


\'  ;%  „ 

M  ' 


:>l-V  ''  L 


By  JOHN  CARGILL 

Monument  Designer  with  Chas.  G.  Blake  €r  Co. 

Chicago 


-ir 


'5>//  l//'- 


d  i  ^  y\ 


NOTES  ON  THE  OLD  CROSS  AT  CANNA 


Some  time  ago  the  "writer  made  a  stud^  of  the 
** Musical  Angles*"  relating  to  their  supposed  use  fcp 
the  old  Irish  designers. 

This,  happily^,  lead  to  the  thought:  If  the  monks 
employed  the  intervals  of  the  musical  string  to  fix  the 
outlines  of  monuments;  they  would  also  be  likely  to 
use  these  intervals  in  the  planning  of  ornament,  and 
possibly  in  such  a  manner  as  to  indicate  melodies. 

This  thought,  the  musical  idea,  led  to  a  review 
of  Celtic  ornament,  part  of  the  results  of  which  it 
is  the  object  of  this  paper  to  present. 


In 


')  i  Copyright:  1916:  By  John  Cargill 


) 


Page  Two 


THE  OLD  CROSS  ON  THE  ISLAND  OF 

CANNA. 

This  monument,  which  probably  dates  from  the 
1 0th  Century,  is  located  in  an  old  cemetery,  situated 
in  the  bottom  of  a  narrow  glen,  near  the  center  of 
the  small  island  of  Canna.  This  island  is  one  of 
several  which  form  the  parish  of  Small  Isles  off  the 
coast  of  Invernesshire,  Scotland. 

Although  erected  on  Scotch  territory,  this  cross 
was  probably  designed  and  built  by  the  Irish,  as  its 


Page  Three 


principal  sculptures  come  under  that  class  of  sacred 
subjects  so  constantly  used  by  them  in  decorating 

^  their  crosses.  The  carved  reliefs  on  the  Scotch 
crosses  generally  represent  scenes  considered  as  taken 
from  civil  life. 

In  the  upper  Zoomorphic  panel,  on  the  front  of 
the  shaft,  the  crossed  animals  are  supposed  to  repre¬ 
sent  the  panther,  which  here  would  typify  the  Resur¬ 
rection  of  Christ. 

In  the  early  Middle  Ages  the  people  had  a  Chris¬ 
tian  symbolism  founded  on  the  habits  of  animals. 
All  this  was  explained  in  works  called  “Bestiaries” 
or  “Books  of  Beasts,”  which  contained  stories  of  the 
lion,  the  lizard,  the  charadrius,  the  pelican,  the 

f  phoenix,  etc.  These  stories  formed  the  basis  of 
Christian  allegories.  Only  fragments  of  one  Bestiary 
in  the  English  language  now  remain.  “This  was 
probably  translated”  says  J.  Romilly  Allen,  “From 
Latin  into  Saxon  rhyme  of  the  same  character  as 
Caedmon’s  metrical  paraphrase  of  the  Scriptures.” 

The  following  lines  from  the  poem  of  the  Panther, 
as  given  in  this  Saxon  Bestiary,  appear  to  have  in¬ 
spired  the  sculptor  of  the  panel  at  Canna,  mentioned 
above : 

/ 

*'When  the  bold  animal 
rises  up 

gloriously  endowed^ 
on  the  third  day 
suddenly  from  sleeps 
a  sound  comes 
of  voices  sweetest 

f  through  the  wild  beast's  mouth." 

I 

•'< 

I 

i 


Page  Four 


If  we  may  be  allowed  to  define  “voices  sweetest” 
as  melody  or  singing,  it  will  appear  as  if  the  de¬ 
signer  intended  these  interlaced  lines  to  symbolize 
melodies.  The  subjects  in  the  two  lower  panels 
present  antitheses  of  the  song  idea,  for  here  we  have 
discord  and  strife,  as  witnessed  by  the  hold  the 
dragons  have  on  each  other.  The  panther  and  the 
dragon  then,  considered  as  parts  of  one  composition, 
illustrate  the  power  of  sacred  song  to  overcome  evil. 
Engel  writes:  “The  notion  that  musical  sound  is  a 
safeguard  against  the  influence  of  evil  spirits  has 
been  common  to  many  nations.” 

Now,  if,  at  either  panther,  we  trace  along  the  line 
which  springs  from  the  animal’s  mouth  and  count 
each  intersection  where  this  ornamental  line  crosses 
itself  or  other  ornamental  line  as  a  musical  note,  and 
arrange  the  resulting  progression  of  notes  as  a  song, 
we  may  feel  assured  we  are  simply  carrying  out  the 
old  artist’s  intention.  (See  Figs.  1  and  2,  Pages 
Five  and  Six.) 

It  is  well  to  briefly  state  here  what  has  been  said 
in  regard  to  music  and  material  form,  questions 
brought  up  by  the  musical  interpretation  of  this  orna¬ 
ment.  “Motion  in  music,”  Helmholtz  practically 
remarks,  “may  imitate  motion  in  space.”  Dr.  Clarke 
writes:  “All  the  arts,  although  starting  from  dif¬ 
ferent  points,  dealing  with  dissimilar  materials,  and 
differing  totally  in  subject  matter,  meet  at  last  on 
this  common  ground  of  form  or  composition.” 

It  is  known  that  certain  well  ordered  ornamental 
arabesques  are  similar  in  construction  to  musical  fig¬ 
ures,  but  it  is  not  generally  understood  that  inter¬ 
laced  ornament  was  occasionally  used  by  the  Celtic 
monks  to  symbolize  tonal  progressions. 


Page  Five 


The  theory  that  the  monks  intended  this  line  work 
to  symbolize  tone,  the  writer  believes,  is  proved  by 
their  art  ideals,  which  were,  in  a  measure,  founded 
upon  doctrines  analogous  to  those  held  by  Pytha¬ 
goras. 

With  the  Pythagoreans  the  tonal  art  was  but  a 
part  of  the  greater  art  of  music,  which  included  what 
may  be  termed  “Form  music,”  dealing  with  space, 
as  well  as  audible  music,  dealing  with  tone. 

To  this  school,  Naumann  says:  “Number,  tone, 
and  the  harmony  of  the  universe  were  identical.” 


No,  1  No,  2 


THE  PANTHERS 
At  an  Enlarged  Scale. 


Page  Six 


The  lines  Fa,  Sol,  La,  etc.,  are  drawn  through  the  intersec¬ 
tions  of  the  ornamental  line  to  assist  in  the  reading. 

On  the  staff  the  line  running  between  the  two  points  of  the 
clef  is  Ut,  or  Do,  also  Middle  C. 

This  ornamental  line  considered  as  notation,  al¬ 
though  lacking  the  essentials  of  modern  scores,  is  yet 
on  a  par  with  the  earliest  attempts  at  musical  writing 
which  left  much  for  the  singer  to  interpret. 

As  Celtic  art  reached  its  highest  stage  during  the 
darkest  period  in  the  history  of  Church  song,  so  we 
can  do  no  better  than  consider  these  notes  under  the 
light  given  by  their  contemporary  song — the  Gre¬ 
gorian  chant. 

The  Gregorian  melodies  were  composed  in  dif¬ 
ferent  scales  or  modes,  each  having  its  special  char-  ^ 
acter,  as  grave,  solemn,  devotional,  expressed  in  its 
tonality. 


Page  Seven 


The  notation  from  Canna,  which  is  from  a  symbol 
of  the  Resurrection,  evidently  was  intended  to  give 
Easter  songs  of  a  joyful  character. 

Now  the  melodies  composed  in  the  Lydian,  or 
fifth,  Gregorian  mode.  Fa  to  Fa,  have  a  joyful  char¬ 
acter,  and  so  it  is  the  appropriate  mode  in  which  to 
arrange  the  notes  from  Canna. 

The  chants  in  the  Gregorian  modes  are  also  char¬ 
acterized  by  the  succession  of  certain  notes  (differ¬ 
ent  in  each  mode)  called  the  principal  chord. 

The  principal  chord  in  the  fifth  mode  is  Fa- La- 
Do,  it  is  the  prominence  of  these  notes  which  give 
the  distinctive  tonal  character  to  the  songs  composed 
in  this  mode. 


That  these  songs  from  Canna  were  composed  in 
the  fifth  mode.  Fa  to  Fa,  appears  evident.  They 


The  notes  with  a  stem  should  be  sung  a  little  louder  and 
longer  than  the  others. 


Page  Eight 

each  sound  the  principal  chord  of  this  mode,  Fa- 
La-Do,  at  or  near  their  beginning.  Separately, 
these  character  tones,  counting  Fa  in  each  octave, 
occur  thirty-eight  times  in  one  song,  and  thirty-two 
in  the  other,  numbers  sufficient  to  give  the  desired 
tone  quality,  and  prove  the  intelligent  musical  inten¬ 
tion  of  Canna’s  unknown  author. 

The  fifth  mode,  when  Si  is  flatted,  becomes  the 
modern  major  mode,  and  as  Hurley  writes,^  “Pieces 
in  the  fifth  mode,  with  Si  natural  are  very  rare,”  so 
it  is  also  proper  to  arrange  the  Canna  notation  in  the 
modern  major  scale. 

In  the  syllabic  chants  the  length  of  the  notes  is 
determined  by  the  words  and  syllables  to  which  they 
are  set.  In  the  songs  from  Canna,  which  are  inde¬ 
pendent  of  text,  there  can  be  no  objection  if  the  notes 
are  given  the  same  length,  but  whether  their  division 
into  measures  of  seven  is  equally  permissible,  may  be 
questioned.  These  problems,  however,  are  beyond 
the  scope  of  this  paper  as  its  purpose  is  simply  to  call 
attention  to  the  notes  on  the  old  cross  at  Canna. 

The  End 


^Gregorian  ChanU  Edmund  G.  Hurley 


